Forbes: A Woman’s Touch Is The Key To The Future Of Home Flipping

March 14, 2018

by Courtney Poulos for Forbes Real Estate Council

I was a latchkey kid. That’s ’80s speak for “single mom wasn’t home when I got home from school.” My home was a rental townhouse in the small town of State College, Pennsylvania. I distinctly remember longingly and frequently asking my friends if I could come to their houses after school — their houses were infinitely better. Not only were they detached single-family homes, but inevitably, my friends’ moms baked cookies and asked us where we were going and what time we’d be back.

Latchkey kids aren’t asked those questions, and despite my already blossoming feelings of rebellion, I felt safer and more protected by these questions — and the fact that someone was home to keep track of us, to warn us that our hour of TV was up, to make sure we didn’t “ruin our appetite for dinner.” That was my American Dream. And perhaps my obsession with the idea of “home,” and its intrinsic value, started there. No one in my family owned one, and I wanted to own one.

Fast forward 30 years. More women are graduating college with advanced degrees. Women are engaging in more advanced careers in math and science. And even in real estate, women make up more than 63% of licensed real estate agents, according to the National Association of REALTORS®. Most dramatically — and inspiring for me personally — is that more women are using home, and its invention, as a tool for economic and creative empowerment.